6

"Come in, Professor Black," said Headmaster Dumbledore from behind his desk.

"Thank you Albus," said Winona Black, stepping into the Headmaster's office. "I've been an Assistant Professor here for four years, surely you can call me Winona by now."

Albus smiled, his eye twinkling softly, "Of course Winona, please do have a seat."

"Thank you," she said, taking a seat in the offered chair. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"As you are well aware, Professor Quirrel is planning on taking a year-long sabbatical before taking on the position of Defense Professor in a year's time. That leaves us with a position that needs to be filled, a position that you are both qualified for, and have expressed an interest in over the years."

"Muggle Studies," said Winona.

"The same," said Albus brightly. "While I'll admit your retorts of Quirinus' methods were a bit blunt, and the various alternative lesson plans you've provided the last three years have been enlightening, if unwarranted, you have shown a desire for the position."

"I just feel that it is best that we adequately prepare our students for the world they'll find once they leave Hogwarts. We do our students a disservice with the current content of our Muggle Studies program. Even with the adjustments Quirinus did following my suggestions it's still decades behind the reality of the mundane world."

"My point exactly, though I now have a problem in that if you take the position as Professor of Muggle Studies, your husband would have to take up the introductory classes that you've championed for the first years in Potions," opined Albus.

Winona smiled, "Well, I do have a suggestion. With the twins getting older, nearly five now, Jimmy's more than capable of taking care of them as their nanny." She stifled a giggle, "And thus, Skyfall has less need for a dedicated caretaker."

"Remus?" asked Albus.

"He's been giving simple lessons to Harry, and unlike my dear husband, has actually mellowed in the dozen years since finishing his education. Given that he's had his furry little problem well under control for years now, and with Padfoot available to keep Moony at bay, he'd be perfect to take over as Assistant Potions Professor."

"I would think he'd be more suited for Defense," offered Albus.

"He's as much my friend as he is my husband's," countered Winona. "And I've seen four different Defense Professors come and go in my time here so far, and after hearing the tales, I see no chance of that changing soon. Remus deserves more than a year, don't you think?"

Albus nodded, "You are, as you quite often are, correct in your observations. I do, though, have another option, considering how well you've done with our Potions curriculum. I think it would be good for our new students to have a consistent introduction to Defense Against the Dark Arts, despite the …" Albus paused, searching for the right word.

"Irregularity?" offered Winona.

"Yes, the irregularity of the Defense tuition," finished Albus.

"Why not both?" offered Winona.

Albus paused, thinking, "That … is a good idea."

"Thank you. So, shall I assume that you'll be offering both my old position, and the new position as Assistant Defense Professor to Remus?"

"I'll need to clear it with Minerva for the financial aspect."

"I'm sure I can convince Jimmy to increase his donations to cover the expense."

Albus chuckled, "Considering how many children your brother is supporting, can he continue to support Hogwarts?"

"Albus, despite my brother's bastards, acknowledged or not …"

"And I do so look forward to when your nieces and nephews make up a significant minority of the Hogwarts population," interrupted Albus snidely.

"As I was saying," said Winona pointedly. "Despite the generous support he's given to his offspring, and the donations that have enabled Hogwarts to employ me these past four years as well as all the upkeep that had been deferred for far too long, his wealth has only grown. He's even begun to consolidate his various companies, though it's nearly got as many heads as a hydra."

"Quite interesting, and I do apologize for my uncouth remarks," said Albus contritely.

"I'll make sure not to pass along either to Jimmy," Winona said with a smirk.

"My sincerest thanks."

"We'll see you tonight pup," said Sirius, patting his godson on the shoulder.

"I don't see why I can't just apparate with you and Aunt Winnie up to Hogwarts. Why spend my entire day on a train when I can just sleep all day and pop up just before the feast and be done with it?" asked Harry.

Winona Black kneeled down in front of Harry. He wasn't her godson, that was for Alice, still in the spell damage ward of St. Mungos, at least until the Stone could be secured from beneath Fluffy. No, she wasn't his godmother, but she was an adoptive aunt, much like she remembered her 'Uncle Frank' from her previous life. And while he hadn't been abused by the Dursleys, she was, in her humble opinion, a much cooler aunt than Petunia ever could hope to be. "Harry, I didn't go to Hogwarts, so I can't give you an example from my own experience, but here's how I understand it. When the train leaves the station, and until it arrives at Hogsmede, there are only three non-student adults aboard. One is the conductor, the other is the sweets lady, while the third is a chosen professor; this year that's Assistant Professor Lupin. Aside from them, it's just students aboard, and for the six hours or so it takes to travel to Hogsmede, you students are mostly unsupervised, which means that it allows you all to get to know each other, without the specter of adults to limit you. So, take this as an opportunity to meet your fellow first years."

"But I already know most of them," complained Harry. "I know Draco and Neville and Ron and Ernie. I know Susan and Hannah and Mandy and Daphne. I even know Blaise and Millie and Zach and Sally too. I've already got friends, why would I need to know anyone else?"

Winona sighed and shook her head, "Okay, here's a challenge, I want you to introduce yourself to every first year, meet them and get to know something about them. Then, if you can prove to me that you know them, I'll convince the Headmaster to let you apparate back with Sirius and I at Christmas." She stuck out her hand, "Deal?"

Harry thought for a moment. He already knew over half of his classmates, beyond even the ones that he'd mentioned. He'd be able to meet the other half, and then tell Winnie, and then he'd never have to spend six hours on a train doing nothing again. So, he took his 'aunt's' hand, and shook it, "Deal."

Harry didn't hear the brief conversation between his godfather and Winnie as he made his quickly way onto the train, his trunk having been shrunk by Sirius and his owl, a pure white Snowy Owl he'd named Hedwig that he'd gotten for his birthday from his 'Uncle' Jimmy, having flown ahead.

"You tricked him," said Sirius with a smile.

"I did no such thing," countered Winona.

"My little Pooh," he said, using the endearment she literally hated herself, or rather Jimmy, for introducing him to via stories to their twins. "You know as well as I do that, if she gets to know all of his classmates, he'll realize that this is the best time for them to hang out without professors or family, or in our cases both, able to interfere."

"Just because I know he'll want to go back, doesn't mean I tricked him. I'll ask Albus just the same, and we both know that Albus will allow it, just to have Harry ask to be allowed to travel by the Express back at Christmas."

"Are you sure you're not a Slytherin?" asked Sirius.

"I didn't got to Hogwarts, dear, so how could I have been a Slytherin? Plus, you've been a professor for five years, you know as well as I do that the Snakes can be just as good, or as evil, as the Lions. Ambition and tradition are as uplifting or corruptive as bravery and daring."

Sirius nodded, "Of course, well, what shall we do with ourselves? Jimmy's got the twins all day, along with a couple of his own runts, and we're not needed at the castle for another five hours."

Winona, thinking of what she had planned for after the Sorting, smiled, "Why don't we go see a film? I could use the distraction."

Sirius kissed his wife, and they disapparated with a slight pop, still in their embrace.

Quirinus Quirrel awoke suddenly, and was almost as quickly afraid. He didn't remember falling asleep, which means he was likely stunned shortly after what he did remember last, which was entering his quarters following the Sorting.

"Master?" he asked, as he took in his surroundings. The room was plain, walls an almost pure grey, with the ceiling and floor the same color. What worried Quirinus the most, though, it that he could not see where the light was coming from, and could not see any doors.

"What do you get us into?" asked the voice from the back of Quirinus' head.

"I know not," Quirinus replied. He stood from the chair, and was mildly surprised when it disappeared shortly after. "Interesting."

"What is?"

"The chair, it's gone," replied Quirinus.

"Where are we? Describe it to me," demanded the voice.

"It's a grey room, no doors, windows, or obvious light sources," he explained. He took the step between where he stood and the wall before him. "The wall is cold, like metal, or perhaps stone, though the texture is wrong for either, like paint."

"How big is it?"

Quirinus turned, "It appears to be a cube, about eight foot or so on a side." He strode the steps to the other side, "It's level, or as level as I can tell without tools, though something is off."

"Where is your wand?"

Quirinus looked down, and was only mildly surprised to notice that he no longer wore his clothing, though he could feel the turban that hid his master. Instead, he wore a loose tunic and pant set the same color as the walls, and the shoes were some plastic muggle clogs. A bit of a wiggle of his hips revealed that even his underwear was removed. "It appears I've been stripped. No wand, nothing else you had me carry either. All that's left is the turban you insisted I wear to hide you."

"I am not ready to be seen by the world."

"As you wish."

"Can you apparate?" asked the voice.

Quirinus tensed, and then let just enough of his magic flow to begin the disapparation process, when he realized that he could feel the tell-tale sluggishness from a well made ward, "No, they, our captors, whomever they are, are not as stupid as to leave such an easy escape for us."

Just then a pop, and the air pressure in the room changing, alerted Quirinus that while he was limited in escaping, entry was still possible, as least for whomever had entered.

"So, are you my gaoler or my fellow inmate?" asked Quirinus as he turned to face the newcomer. He paused as he caught sight of the skeletal form of whomever, or whatever, now shared the small room with him, and his master. "What are you?"

"Jailer," answered the skeleton. It wore clothes, a surprisingly well tailored suit and tie, of muggle fashion but obviously not muggle made. The odd hexagonal copper and silver symbol pinned to the lapel eye momentarily.

"And whom might my gaoler be?"

The skeleton in a suit paused for a moment, thinking, "Hmm, perhaps I should just kill you now, let you and your master rot in here for all time."

"And where, might I be so bold as to inquire, is this gaol of yours?" asked Quirinus.

"You may inquire all you like, but that is for me to know, and you … to not," answered the suited skeleton.

"So, it will be as that," said Quirinus with a sigh.

"Let me see him," demanded the voice from the back of Quirinus' head.

"Ah, Tom, you speak," said the skeleton, surprisingly brightly.

"Do not call me that! I am Lord Voldemort!" demanded the muffled voice.

Just then, the skeleton traced words in the air with the top of it's skeletal index finger.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

The letters were then drug out of the phrase, and into another.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

"Oh," said Quirinus, surprised at the simple anagram. "So the rumors are true then."

"What did he do?"

"I used your own words against you, Tom," replied the skeleton.

"You know, then, of my Lord's past?" asked Quirinus. "Beyond just what has been publicized by the so-called 'Emperor' Shepard?"

"I know much of your Lord's past. I know of his descent into the Chamber of Secrets, and his inability to keep his newfound pet a secret. I know how his quest for immortality changed him, made him less of a man, in many senses of the word. I know how, in his quest for power, he let ego once again overstep his ability, and lost his body to the machinations of a first generation witch."

"Lily Potter was but a speck, a mite of dust!" shouted the voice of Voldemort.

"Shut up Tom, your betters are speaking," countered the skeleton.

"So, this is about him, and not me?" asked Quirinus.

"As soon as you accepted him as your Lord, and took his spirit into your body, you were a dead man," explained the skeleton. "You may walk around, you may talk, and he might have convinced you that the Stone or even the blood of Unicorns would sustain you, but you are dead, you just don't know it yet."

"So, you are more than my gaoler, you are my executioner as well?"

"I am no such thing. I will provide meals for you, water, everything your body required to survive before you allowed Tom to accompany you. By my estimates, you have a few months before your body degrades enough that his presence will kill you."

"And what happens then?" asked Quirinus, accepting his fate.

"Then, well, then I stop the meals and water from arriving, of course," said the skeleton nonchalantly.

"And my Master, what will become of him?"

"I am immortal!" shouted Tom.

Just then the skeleton removed something from inside one of its pockets, a book of some sort. "I doubt that Tom," it said as it handed the book to Quirrel.

"What is this?" asked Quirinus.

"Open it," encouraged the unnamed undead.

Quirinus opened it, revealing a blank book, aside from a simple bookplate on the inside cover. He read it, and then looked to the skeleton, "This was my master's"

"A diary from his time at Hogwarts."

"Impossible!" shouted Tom. "Lucius promised me it would remain safe."

"Lucius is dead, Master," replied Quirrel. "He died a few weeks after most of your loyal Death Eaters were all killed in Azkaban."

"Dead?"

"I killed him," explained the skeleton. "That was, of course, after I killed the ones on island holiday, though Bella lasted the longest, until her death could serve a purpose. For she she too held a token of yours." Another item was retrieved from a pocket, this one an ornate bronze goblet.

"Describe it to me!" demanded Tom.

"It's a goblet or chalice, covered in images of badgers, with topaz and onyx jewels," described Quirinus. "Hufflepuff's Cup?"

"Just because you destroyed two of them, does not mean that I am no longer immortal!"

"Two of what?" asked Quirinus.

"Horcrux," replied the skeleton. "It's a device that holds a portion of someone's soul, tying it to the mortal world, so that despite dying, they still remain, a spirit with little form, and even less function."

"How many?" asked Quirinus. "How many did he make?"

"The diary, the cup, the locket," and with that, the skeleton removed an ornate locket on a silver necklace. "The diadem," another item was removed from a pocket, "And the ring." A fifth item, though missing it's stone, was removed and handed to Quirinus, who struggled to hold them in his hands.

"Impossible!" shouted Tom. "I still live."

"If you call it living," countered the skeleton. "No matter, I have revealed your end, Tom, and I hope that Quirinus here will serve you well until he dies."

"I will return, you cannot stop me!"

"Tom, I only left Quirrel alive because he served a purpose, getting you to a place I could abduct you from. You have no followers, I have killed them all save Quirinus here. Nobody in the world, or shall I say, on Earth, still holds your Mark."

Quirinus raised his eyebrows, the lessons of his Astronomy professor coming to the fore.

How would bother Quirinus until the moment he died, but somehow the skeleton smiled, "Ah, so Quirinus knows a bit about his fourth question."

"Who matters little, though you've admitted to being my Gaoler," summarized Quirinus. "What is readily apparent, as I am in a gaol, at least of some sort. When, well, you caught me just after the Sorting, though I suppose it could be hours, days, or even weeks later."

"About two days, the portkey took a bit of time," replied the skeleton.

"And that brings me to where. Combined with the length of the port key trip, and your comment about 'on Earth', I suppose we're no longer on Earth?"

"You are correct," replied the skeleton.

Quirinus bounced a bit, testing his weight, "I knew something felt off. Not Earth, but not too light either, so … Venus?"

A silent nod from the skeleton.

"I see, and why is rather obvious, you're Black's 'Grey Lord'. You eliminated the Death Eaters, as well as likely killing Grindlewald and his Knights. I suppose you're also behind that muggle terrorist named after Tom here?" asked Quirinus, pointing to the back of his head.

Another nod.

"The how, well, it could have been anything, a potion, a muggle drug, even a silent stunner."

"All three," answered the skeleton.

"I see, well, that does it then."

"That it does."

"And what are your plans for Earth?" asked Quirinus. "You've orchestrated the destruction of the last two Dark Lords to terrorize the world, so you have plans for it now that you're without rivals."

"Unite and rule," replied the skeleton. Then, slowly, flesh began to appear on the skeleton's bones, and revealed someone whom Quirinus had met a few times before.

"The Emperor, I should have guessed."

"In the flesh, so to speak."

"So, this is the end?"

The Emperor nodded, "This is the end. Eventually his last horcrux will die, and he'll finally go to his just reward."

"Wait, last horcrux?" asked Quirinus.

"I only made five, for when I tried to make the sixth … " said the voice of Tom.

"Exactly," confirmed the Emperor.

"I marked him as my equal, made him a horcrux," said Tom's voice somberly. "And now, he's all that's keeping my alive."

"The irony is nice, is it not. And what's better, there's almost no chance of anyone or anything arriving on Venus after Quirinus' death. Outside is seven hundred degrees of acid rain. There are currently three beings on Venus. When I leave, it will just be you two, and then, in the end, it'll be just you Tom."

"Have mercy," pled Tom.

"Mercy? You beg for mercy?" asked the Emperor.

"I'll give you anything you want!" shouted Tom.

"Offer me money," demanded the Emperor.

"Yes!" said Tom.

"Power, too, promise me that."

"All that I have and more. Please …"

"Offer me anything I ask for."

"I'll give you everything you want!"

The Emperor smiled, and with the smile, the illusion fell once more, and the skeleton again wore the suit. "I want you soul, you bastard!" and with that, it reached out for Quirrel's head, and grasped it, and began the process of draining both of their souls. Tom's actually comes first, as it was so little, and so much of it had already been drained for the horcruxes. Then, though, came Quirinus' soul, and with it the memories. The lich learned about how Quirinus was tempted with money and power by Tom, by Voldemort, and how, it was that temptation that lead him to offer himself freely to Voldemort's spirit, and that ultimately doomed him.

As Quirrel's dead body fell out of nobodez' grasp the lich stepped back from the cooling body. "Well, so much for all this work," they said, and then reached down, and with a pull of magic, sent the body of Quirinus Quirrel to the Demesne. They then stood, and with a wave of their skeletal hand, began to weaken the structure around them, until it broke, and the acid wind ripped through, melting the rock and searing the suit from the bones, until, finally, nothing was left of the jail created for Quirrel and Riddle. Then, even the lich disappeared, though instead of being eaten away by the boiling acid rain of Venus, they fumated, and began the journey back to earth, heading for orbit before starting the long series of portkeys from one planet to another. They had a Stone to steal, and perhaps find a way to collect the other two Hallows.